MAKING MEANING POETRY COLLECTION Sonnet, With Bird Elliptical Fences Concept Vocabulary As you perform your first read of these poems, you will encounter these words. perspective entitled interactions Base Words If these words are unfamiliar to you, analyze each one to see whether it contains a base word you know. Then, use your knowledge of the “inside” word, along with context, to determine the meaning. Unfamiliar Word: extrasensory Familiar Base Word: sensory, which means “of or relating to the senses” Context: I wrote down the address and took a taxi driven by one of those cabdrivers with extrasensory memory. Conclusion: Cabdrivers are known for their exceptional memories for directions. Perhaps extrasensory means “beyond the ordinary perception of the senses.” Apply your knowledge of base words and other vocabulary strategies to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words you encounter during your first read. First Read POETRY Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have the opportunity to complete a close read after your first read. STANDARDS RL.9–10.10 By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend NOTICE who or what is ANNOTATE by marking literature, including stories, dramas, “speaking” the poem and vocabulary and key passages and poems, at the high end of the whether the poem tells a you want to revisit. grades 9–10 text complexity band story or describes a single independently and proficiently. moment. L.9–10.4.a Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. CONNECT ideas within RESPOND by completing All rights reserved. or its affiliates. Inc., Education, © Pearson L.9–10.4.b Identify and correctly each selection to what you the Comprehension Check. use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts already know and what you of speech and continue to apply have already read. knowledge of Greek and Latin roots and affixes. 212 UNIT 2 • OUTSIDERS AND OUTCASTS ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Do people need to belong? About the Poets Backgrounds Sherman Alexie (b. 1966) grew up on the Sonnet, With Bird Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington The sonnet form is one of the most enduring State. As a child, Alexie suffered from seizures poetic forms, having survived five centuries and spent much of his time in bed reading. essentially unchanged. A sonnet follows a After college, his career as a writer took off. strict fourteen-line arrangement in a specific Since then, Alexie has won numerous awards rhyme scheme. The final two lines of a sonnet for his novels, stories, screenplays, and resolve or summarize the preceding lines. poems, including a PEN/Hemingway Award In this poem, Sherman Alexie reinvents the and the National Book Award. sonnet, presenting one of our most traditional forms in an entirely new way. Harryette Mullen (b. 1953) grew up Elliptical primarily in Texas and now teaches English Ellipsis—often represented with punctuation at the University of California, Los Angeles. marks known as ellipsis points (. .)—is the Mullen’s poetry has been described as omission, often intentional, of a word or “crossing lines” between the political and the words that would be needed for a thought personal. Mullen credits much of her success to be complete. Sometimes, the missing to attending poetry readings in which she word or words are understood from context. realized that poetry is “not just something on Other times, they are left to the reader’s the page” but instead something that has to imagination. This poem, whose title means be heard out loud to be fully appreciated. “involving ellipsis,” plays with both of these ideas. Pat Mora (b. 1942) grew up in El Paso, Texas, Fences and became a teacher, museum director, and This poem was inspired by Puerto Vallarta, university administrator before turning to a beach resort city in Mexico. Many places, writing. Mora writes poetry in both English including Puerto Vallarta, rely on tourism as and Spanish, often including Spanish words a major income source. This tourist economy, and phrases in her English-language poems. however, means that many locals must Her transcultural style gives a voice to her accommodate tourists who enjoy an affluent Mexican American heritage of the Southwest. lifestyle that they themselves cannot afford. © Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved. or its affiliates. Inc., Education, © Pearson POETRY COLLECTION 213 POETRY Sonnet, With Bird Sherman Alexie SCAN FOR MULTIMEDIA 1. Seventeen months after I moved off the reservation, and on the NOTES second plane flight of my life, I traveled to London to promote my first internationally published book. 2. A Native American in England! I imagined the last Indian in England was Maria Tall Chief, the Osage1 ballerina who was once married to Balanchine.2 An Indian married to Balanchine! 3. My publishers put me in a quaint little hotel near the Tate Gallery. I didn’t go into the Tate. Back then, I was afraid of paintings of and by white men. I think I’m still afraid of paintings of and by white men. 4. This was long before I had a cell phone, so I stopped at payphones to call my wife. I miss the intensity of a conversation measured by a dwindling stack of quarters. 5. No quarters in England, though, and I don’t remember what the equivalent British coin was called. 6. As with every other country I’ve visited, nobody thought I was Indian. This made me lonely. 7. Lonely enough to cry in my hotel bed one night as I kept thinking, “I am the only Indian in this country right now. I’m the only Indian within a five-thousand-mile circle.” 8. But I wasn’t the only Indian; All rights reserved. or its affiliates. Inc., Education, © Pearson 1. Osage Native American tribe based in the Midwestern United States. 2. Balanchine George Balanchine (1904–1983), dance choreographer who founded the New York City Ballet and is considered the father of American ballet. 214 UNIT 2 • OUTSIDERS AND OUTCASTS I wasn’t even the only Spokane Indian.3 9. On the payphone, my mother told me that a childhood friend from the reservation was NOTES working at a London pub. So I wrote down the address and took a taxi driven by one of those cabdrivers with extrasensory memory. 10. When I entered the pub, I sat in a corner, and waited for my friend to discover me. When he saw me, he leapt over the bar and hugged me. “I thought I was the only Indian in England,” he said. 11. His name was Aaron and he died of cancer last spring. I’d rushed to see him in his last moments, but he passed before I could reach him. Only minutes gone, his skin was still warm. I held his hand, kissed his forehead, and said, “England.” 12. “England,” in our tribal language, now means, “Aren’t we a miracle?” and “Goodbye.” 13. In my strange little hotel near the Tate, I had to wear my suit coat to eat breakfast in the lobby restaurant. Every morning, I ordered eggs and toast. Everywhere in the world, bread is bread, but my eggs were impossibly small. “What bird is this?” I asked the waiter. “That would be quail,” he said. On the first morning, I could not eat the quail eggs. On the second morning, I only took a taste. On third day, I ate two and ordered two more. 14. A gathering of quail is called a bevy. A gathering of Indians is called a tribe. When quails speak, they call it a song. When Indians sing, the air is heavy with grief. When quails grieve, they lie down next to their dead. When Indians die, the quail speaks. 3. Spokane Indian Native American from the northeastern part of Washington State. © Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved. or its affiliates. Inc., Education, © Pearson Sonnet, With Bird 215 POETRY Elliptical All rights reserved. or its affiliates. Inc., Education, © Pearson Harryette Mullen SCAN FOR MULTIMEDIA They just can’t seem to . They should try harder to . They ought to be more . We all wish they weren’t so . They never . They NOTES always . Sometimes they . Once in a while they . However Mark base words or indicate another strategy you used that it is obvious that they . Their overall tendency has been . helped you determine meaning. The consequences of which have been . They don’t appear to perspective (puhr SPEHK tihv) understand that . If only they would make an effort to . But n. we know how difficult it is for them to . Many of them remain MEANING: unaware of . Some who should know better simply refuse to . Of course, their perspective has been limited by . On the other hand, they obviously feel entitled to . Certainly we can’t forget that they . Nor can it be denied that they . We know that this has entitled (ehn TY tuhld) adj. had an enormous impact on their . Nevertheless their behavior MEANING: strikes us as . Our interactions unfortunately have been . interactions (ihn tuhr AK shuhnz) n. MEANING: © Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved. or its affiliates. Inc., Education, © Pearson Elliptical 217 POETRY Fences Pat Mora SCAN FOR MULTIMEDIA Mouths full of laughter, NOTES the turistas come to the tall hotel with suitcases full of dollars. Every morning my brother makes 5 the cool beach new for them. With a wooden board he smooths away all footprints. I peek through the cactus fence and watch the women rub oil 10 sweeter than honey into their arms and legs while their children jump waves or sip drinks from long straws, coconut white, mango yellow.